Robert Anderson

Robert Anderson (14 June 1805-26 October 1871) was a US Army Brigadier-General who, as a Major, led the Union garrison at Fort Sumter when the first shots of the American Civil War were fired on 12 April 1861.

Biography
Robert Anderson was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1805, a relative of John Marshall through his mother, who was his cousin. Anderson graduated from West Point in 1825 and became a US Army artillery lieutenant, serving in the 1832 Black Hawk War as a colonel of Illinois volunteers; he mustered Abraham Lincoln in and out of service during the war, and he and Jefferson Davis transported Black Hawk into captivity. He later served on the staff of Winfield Scott during the Second Seminole War and the Mexican-American War, being wounded at the Battle of Molino del Rey. In November 1860, as a Major, he was given command of US forces in and around Charleston, South Carolina. When South Carolina seceded in December 1860, Anderson - despite being a native of Kentucky and a former slave owner - remained loyal to the Union, moving his garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter with the goal of preventing bloodshed. On 12 April 1861, however, Anderson's former student P.G.T. Beauregard and a Confederate army attacked the fort, and the bloodless battle ended when Anderson surrendered two days later. He took the fort's 33-star flag with him to New York City, where he was promoted to Brigadier-General and hailed as a hero for resisting the rebels. Anderson commanded the Department of Kentucky from 28 May to 7 October 1861, when he was replaced by William T. Sherman because of ill health and his refusal to distribute rifles to unionists in the state. On 27 October 1863, he retired from the Army, and, on 14 April 1865 (the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Fort Sumter and the day of Abraham Lincoln's assassination), Anderson raised the old 33-star flag at Fort Sumter in a symbolic gesture. He died in Nice, France in 1871 while seeking a cure for his ailments.